OUTstages Festival Brings Queer Theatre to Victoria

By Victoria Pride Contributing Writer

From February 8th to 16th, Intrepid Theatre will be putting on the sixth annual OUTstages Festival. The festival will feature a slate of performances representing all areas of the queer spectrum.

“It’s important to share queer stories,” says Festival Curator Sean Guist. It’s important to give queer artists a platform. It’s important to bring non-queer audiences into queer stories: introduce them to stories they may not know or a perspective they might not know. What’s really important to me when I program the festival is to showcase as many identities from the queer spectrum as we possibly can.”

The show will feature performances from both local artists and artists touring across Canada.

“We have Where the Two-Spirit Lives, which is a show from Alberta that puts two-spirit artists on stage telling their story and what contemporary Two-Spirit identity means to them—how they express it through drag,” says Guist. “We have the Darlings from Vancouver, which is a drag collective of all trans- and non-binary-identified performers who are really challenging what mainstream drag is and looks like: a lot of movement, spoken word, some poetry aside from the traditional big wig and lip sync.”

UVic’s Transgender Archives will be putting on a free event on the 10th featuring a presentation of some historical video footage. The 14th will bring a collaborative performance featuring a variety of artists.

“We’re also really excited to have an ASL-interpreted show,” adds Guist. “We’re partnering with Riot Grrrls Revue and the Salty Broad Productions, two really great queer-centered and feminist-centered local performance companies. We’re mixing in a bunch of festival artists and other artists to make this one-of-a-kind cabaret show for Valentine’s Day called Eat Your Heart Out, and it will have ASL interpretation. We really want to make the festival accessible.”

The cabaret tradition stretches back hundreds of years. It has provided a venue for marginalized people of all areas to share their messages.

“I feel like we’re focusing on these kinds of underground cabaret acts and shining a light on the artists and what they have to say, what they’re talking about, what they’re fighting against and how they fit into society,” says Guist. “Cabaret has always come up in times of turmoil as a way for artists to challenge the status quo, to have a voice and talk about issues.”

The festival serves the Intrepid Theatre’s agenda of bringing bold contemporary work to the stage in Victoria while also serving the agenda of the queer community.

“We used to run the festival in June right before Pride, but we moved it to February,” Guist explains. “I really wanted to have queer programming year-round in this city. By putting this festival in February, that helps make queer art and queer spaces happen throughout the year.”

The OUTstages Festival runs from February 8th – 14th. Ticket prices vary. Free youth tickets are available to those 25 and under.

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